Many newer technologies are being touted to replace VGA and DVI. The two leading candidates are HDMI, which comes on nearly every TV and DVD player today, and DisplayPort, a high-definition alternative created especially for PCs. But Mini-DisplayPort has a powerful backer in Apple Inc., while the emerging wireless HDMI has fans drooling over the potential to dump bulky cables.

DisplayLink makes graphics chips for laptop docking stations and external USB video cards that connect a laptop to any external monitor up to 1680 x 1050 in resolution.

DisplayLink shipped just under 1 million chips in its first year, according to Dennis Crespo, DisplayLink's executive vice president of marketing and business development, in an interview last month before the International CES.

By the end of January, more than 16 monitors will feature built-in USB support, Crespo said.

Besides supporting multiple screens, USB is more compact than bulky VGA or DVI connectors, especially the mini and micro-USB versions. That makes USB a good candidate for hooking up gadgets like digital cameras or iPhones to monitors or TVs, as well as PCs.

Jon Peddie, head of Jon Peddie Research, is even more enthusiastic on USB video. "USB might kill DisplayPort before DisplayPort kills it," he said.

The chief complaint is the 480Mbit/sec. bandwidth limit imposed today by USB 2.0. While enough to surf the Web or watch DVDs mostly flicker-free, current DisplayLink products run into trouble with 3D games or Blu-Ray DVD playback, Crespo said.

By the end of this year, a new DisplayLink chip combined with improved software drivers should boost frame rates and enable resolutions of up to 2560 x 1600, he said.

And when "Superspeed" USB 3.0, with its maximum throughput of 5Gbit/sec. arrives, it should put to rest any fears over USB's support for higher-resolution video and gaming, Crespo said.

TG Daily quoted an unnamed representative from the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) who said that it will be several years before USB 3.0 products start to approach the spec's top speed.

Also, it's unclear whether mainstream graphics chip makers will adopt USB video. Without direct USB output, video signals must travel from the graphics chip through the main system bus before exiting out to the USB port. That could put a cap on USB's video bandwidth, said Fihn, though DisplayLink's Crespo disputed that.

Another key player, Microsoft Corp. , is also not supporting USB video in Windows 7, despite supporting the latest, faster versions of HDMI and DisplayPort.